News

March 30, 2011

Smart System Technology Center To Get $5M For Improvements

By: by Matthew Daneman, Staff Writer, Democrat and Chronicle

Source:

New York is putting $5 million in taxpayer funds toward beefing up the organic light emitting diode manufacturing and other technology development capabilities at the Smart System Technology and Commercialization Center in Canandaigua.

The money is coming from Empire State Development Corp.'s Upstate Regional Blueprint Fund, which was created to finance business developments and boost economic development work across upstate.

The money comes as Moser Baer Technologies, the U.S. division of a $4 billion corporation based in India, is spending $17 million to set up a pilot production facility for OLED lighting panels at the former Infotonics Technology Center.

According to Empire State Development, the $5 million will help in retaining 40 jobs at the STC, in creating an additional 20 full-time positions and in assisting Moser Baer in its plans to employ 50 at the site.

The money will go toward $8 million worth of improvements to cleanroom space at the Canandaigua facility, new machinery and equipment for OLED manufacturing, and expanding the center's capacity for manufacturing other technologies.

The state funding "will leverage more than $25 million in financial support from our industry partners to enable the further development of high-tech infrastructure and capabilities at ... STC, which in turn will drive new opportunities to attract nanotechnology jobs, companies and investment to the greater Rochester region," Alain Kaloyeros, CEO of the Albany-based College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, which now runs the Canandaigua site, said in a statement.